


Strays

by LittleSpacePrince



Series: Tale Teller's Daily Writing Challenge [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce and Tony basically start a home for wayward superkids, Gen, Homecoming, Homelessness, M/M, this is trash fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 00:39:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13693242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSpacePrince/pseuds/LittleSpacePrince
Summary: Prompt:Your character finds a homeless child. What do they do?In which Tony collects strays (and Bruce more or less lets him.)





	Strays

“You can't keep adopting kids like strays, Tony.” Bruce protested, hands wringing as he glanced into the next room. There sat a young girl, only maybe fifteen, hands folded in her lap as she picked at the corners of her fingernails. Messy blonde hair, blue eyes downcast, like she didn’t belong here, or anywhere, for that matter. Wayward misfits. Though, she wasn’t much different than the other kids that Tony had brought in for his makeshift team of young defenders. 

“You should've seen her, Bruce. The kid can kick ass. Threw a guy twice her size across an alley without breaking a sweat. She’s definitely not just human. She belongs on the team.” Tony insisted, eyes alight as he glanced back toward her.

“She’s a kid, Tony. We can’t go throwing kids in harm’s way like this. They don’t… They shouldn’t have to be thrown into this life so early.” 

It was his new hobby, Bruce supposed. Finding extraordinary people in some attempt to protect the earth from whatever evils were thrown their way. It was an obsession, to a point where it blinded the mechanic, and he would go after people too young to be fighting like soldiers. Kids, fifteen, sixteen, with all of this life ahead of them. Tony did his best to shield them, to protect them with his own life, but there was only so much that could be done to save them. It was only a matter of time before something went awry, or somebody fucked up, and one of them ended up dead.

Tony sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, letting out a small sigh before turning back toward her, eyes full of some emotion that Bruce didn’t quite know how to place. He pursed his lips, taking a closer look at her. Hair strung wildly, dirty and matted in places. Her clothes looked old and worn, her converse damn near falling apart. 

“She doesn’t have anywhere else to go.” Tony murmured.

Bruce had been in her shoes once. After his mother had died and his father had been arrested, he’d been tossed from foster home to foster home, no one keeping him long, no one wanting the older kids, no one wanting the kid who had witnessed his father backing over his mother as she lay dead in the driveway. No one had wanted to deal with the nightmares, or the insomnia, or the fits of tears, or the fits of rage. No one wanted a kid with that much damage. So he ran away, when he was fourteen, preferring the streets to families that didn’t want him. 

He supposed that he would have killed for the opportunity for a warm bed and a family that wanted him around. He supposed that he should’ve extended the opportunity to her, too.

“She’s not a soldier. She’s not a weapon. She’s a kid.” Bruce warned. “We treat her as such. She doesn’t fight for us. We fight our own battles.” 

“Alright, alright, of course.” Tony nodded. 

Bruce sighed, opting to concede to Tony’s plans of good will. It was for the greater good, and he supposed that a home with the Avengers was better than a home on the streets. He sighed, and opened the door the rest of the way, slipping inside as she looked up toward the two of them. 

“Well... If you need a place to stay, you’ve got it.” Bruce explained, offering a small smile of consolation and hospitality. “Welcome to the Avengers.”


End file.
